An estimate that arrives after the decision is a receipt.

Most projects get a serious cost number at exactly the point where it can no longer change anything.

The land is closed. The layout is set. The engineering is drawn. And then the number comes back, and it’s twenty percent over the pro forma, and the only remaining moves are the expensive ones, redesign, reprice, or absorb.

An estimate is worth most at the front, when it can still change the program, the offer, or the decision to go at all.

What we price

• Site development, clearing, grading, erosion control, stormwater
• Utilities, on-site and off-site, including extensions and capacity obligations
• Streets, access and the roadway improvements a TIA is likely to require
• The obligations that sit outside construction: capacity and system development fees, recreation dedication or fee-in-lieu, and the conditions of approval that carry a cost

That last group is the one most estimates miss, because it is not in a unit price book. It is in an ordinance, a fee schedule, and a set of conditions somebody negotiated at a hearing.

Where it fits

Estimating pairs naturally with pre-acquisition diligence: what it can become, and what it costs to make it that, in the same conversation. It’s also the easiest thing we do to buy first, because it doesn’t require you to have committed to anything.